University College London Hospitals
Sun Integration and Messaging Software Helps Patients Directly Book Appointments at London HospitalsChoose and Book is a national service from Connecting for Health(CfH), a program within the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) that provides patients and their general practitioners (GPs) with the ability to directly book appointments over the Internet with their hospitals and consultant specialists of choice. Customer Challenges
SolutionThe hospitals implemented an enterprise service bus based on Sun software and service oriented architecture (SOA) to integrate their Patient Scheduling (PAS) Systems with the Choose and Book services. Business Results
Story DetailsThe Choose and Book service from the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) allows general practitioners (GPs) and their patients to directly book appointments with consultant specialists at hospitals throughout the country. The service provides convenience for patients, advanced visibility into demand for healthcare management and a reduction in inefficient paper-based workflow between GP practices and hospitals. The ability to directly book appointments with specialists through the Internet is especially important in major urban centers such as London, where travel may not be an obstacle and where a high concentration of specialists are based. It was in London, moreover, that two NHS Foundation Trust hospitals—Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (C&HW) and University College London Hospital (UCLH)—worked together to achieve a common strategy for implementing the Choose and Book service. The two hospitals chose to use the same solution in order to reduce costs and preserve vendor relationships and technology investments over the long term.
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We are relieved to have Sun working with our service provider,LogicaCMG, as an integrated team to deliver this service. I am impressed with the way Sun was able to work so flexibly with our Trusts on this shared project. We are now able to focus on the business challenges presented by direct booking.
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— James Thomas, IT Director, University College London Hospital
To participate in the Choose and Book Service, both hospitals had to connect their Patient Scheduling Systems (PAS) to the NHS Spine network and Electronic Booking System (EBS) using the ebXML HL7 Version 3 communications protocol. The two hospitals used the same PAS vendor, GE, but have independent IT operations and integration services. UCLH integration services are provided by LogicaCMG and C&HW services were sourced internally. A versatile solution was needed to interoperate with the IT systems at both hospitals. The Sun Solution
Working with GE and integration teams from both hospitals, Sun used Java CAPS to map the national e-booking process across an enterprise service bus. This solution opened up the flow of data while complying with specific messaging protocols for the Spine and GE systems. Cooperation between C&WH and UCLH provided strong leadership and structure for the development, testing and implementation process. This was crucial in gaining authority to proceed from the CfH. The LogicaCMG integration team transformed the UCLH messages into the format required by the GE PAS. C&WH performed the same function for their GE PAS software. In just six months from inception to go-live, an end-to-end solution had been developed to meet the rigorous operational readiness standards of the C&WH and UCLH Foundation Trusts and the CfH program. Authority to deploy was achieved in December 2006 and both trusts are now receiving direct bookings from patients all over the country through Sun’s seamless message handling and integration software. |
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